29 January 2013

Easing Back into the Painting Saddle. . .

Here's a close-up of the three figures on foot that are part of the current five-figure staff vignette. The figures are Prussians from the delightful Minden Miniatures range along with a British infantry officer from the newer Fife & Drum range. The two ranges work marvelously together since Richard Ansell has sculpted the masters for both.

Back to the painting table -- wasn't that a John Wayne film, or was it a Michael J. Fox film instead? -- for ninety minutes last night after supper. It felt good to open up a few new bottles of Citadel paints and a tube of oil to begin detailing the five figures that make up the current staff vignette in-in progress. Ah, I love the small of oil paints in the evening!

And here is a close-up of the two mounted gentlemen. I'm using illustrations of various Prussian officers in Mollo's Uniforms of the Seven Years War and Haythornthwaite and Fosten's Men-at-Arms series on Frederick the Great's troops as the basis for these uniforms. Some of the minor details, however, will be left up to my imagination since these are actually Stollenian officers.

Since painting ceased last month, in order for me to help Santa Claus/Father Christmas with his errands, I've had a change in lens prescription for my eye-glasses (inherited my father's and maternal grandfather's poor eyes I'm afraid and have had to wear glasses since I was nine years old), which have taken a bit of getting used to. And naturally, that has had some effect on my painting. I've had to adjust the distance I hold the figures from my face and the desk lamps while painting. So, progress last night was a little slow, and I was a bit self-conscious about making errors, and slopping paint where I did not want it. I
think it might be time to purchase one of those lighted magnifying
contraptions. You know. Middle-aged eyes and all that nonsense!

Here's the entire vignette, in focus this time. Once detailing of the figures is complete, hopefully in the next several days, I'll add my usual two coats of glossy acrylic varnish to them and the two mounted British officers in the background. Then, I'll add some terrain features and a cast off item of two as well as Woodland Scenics ground cover to finish things off before moving onto another vignette.

Anyway, painting seemed to go pretty well though. I'm not entirely happy with things yet, but there are still quite a few small things left to pick out carefully with a fairly new #1 round brush. With any luck at all, these figures will start to look like something before long. Watch for some more photo updates in the next several days. And you know, as much as we might love painting and collecting figures and occasionally gaming with them, sometimes the painting part is a long, lonely slog. No two ways about it. I am aware that some farm out their figures to professional painters, and I might try that one day, but for me part of the joy and satisfaction of the hobby comes through painting my own things. At least that's what I tell myself.

Now, it's seems ol' Irwin-Amadeus II is in it up to his neck with houseguests and female suitors, so we'll need to attend to that before long. And then there are some additional figure vignettes to order too, something I'll do this evening after some more painting. I've decided to start with some Minden laborers, some Eureka musicians, and a Blue Moon duelist set or two for the upcoming non-combatant scenes that I nattered on about a post or two ago. Stay tuned for more developments there too. Geeze, and there is Neu Sittangbad to set up and resume again too. Why in the world aren't there enough hours in the day? And how could the extra free time of the Christmas holidays come and go by so quickly?

Hi these, these are coming along nicely - lovely scuplts. What do you use for the vignette bases? Looks like pretty sturdy stuff! I assume you paint the base to prevent warping or similar?I too have failing eye sight - almost certainly due to far too many hours spent painting in bad light in my youth. I'm one of those who now "farms out"; although I still base everything myself!Looking forward to seeing these progress, keep it up.JJ

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